"Well, I'm here," Amai muttered, looking nervously at the stairs (the billion, trillion stairs) leading up to Genkai's temple. She heaved a huge sigh before starting the uphill trek one begrudging step at a time.
A little bit later she was already panting, so she stopped and sat down to look at the billion steps she had already climbed. She counted 20 and sighed deeply. 20 steps and she was already feeling like going home. She rummaged into her backpack and pulled out her ipod. Maybe angry music would make her faster.
The rest of the steps were almost easier with the senseless pounding in her ears. Running up them at a semi-steady pace, she managed to get about halfway before nearly tripping and deciding to take another break. She removed her ipod from her pocket and started to turn down the volume when something flashed in front of her. She looked up immediately, worried that stupid old lady had sent something to test her halfway up the million freaking steps of stairs to her stupid house. She glimpsed around, pulling out her earbuds as someone came up behind her and pushed her shoulders. Not hard enough for her to tumble forward but enough that she freaked out and spun around. Her foot promptly slipped and she ended up on her stomach, sliding down a few of the steps until her aforementioned traitorous foot remembered its purpose and stopped her. Amai glared at the laughing red head, standing on the steps she had just vacated. He was smart, since he was too far away for Amai to immediately kill him.
Amai looked to her left and saw a rock, about half the size of her fist. Jin was still laughing at her, so she reached her left hand toward the rock, feeling her spirit energy wrap around it. Lifting her hand the slightest bit caused the rock to float, and as she sat up, she wrenched her arm back as if about to pitch a soft ball, and let it fly at Jin's head. He probably could have avoided it, especially if he had known it was coming. Amai let her energy drop from the rock once it was sent flying and watched it hit its mark. With a smug smile she sat all the way up, dusting off her shirt and rubbing the blood of her chin. Great, another scab. She'd look awful at the school dance if she kept it up.
"Well what'd you go an' do that fer?" Jin was rubbing a red spot on his forehead, frowning over at her.
Amai rolled her eyes and stood up completely, staring disdainfully down at her skinned knees. Her soccer shorts were longer than her school's usual gym shorts, but not enough to cover her knees. She looked at her arms, though they weren't quite so damaged.
"You scared me, it's not funny. Didn't you see how far I fell?" Amai growled, stomping painfully up the steps.
"Aww, I said I was sorry." Jin gave her his usual lopsided grin, his pain already forgotten and the red mark already gone. Damn demon healing powers.
Amai shot him a disgruntled look, "No you didn't."
"Oh. Sorry, Amai."
And damn that bashful smile, Amai thought vehemently as she picked up her dropped ipod and checked it. Not broken, thank God, or she'd have to throw a boulder at Jin. She adjusted her backpack that had survived the fall while still attached to her back. She sighed and wiped her chin again, checking her hand; still bleeding. Gross. She sent another glance at Jin, seething. A realization hit her.
"Noooo," Amai bemoaned, her shoulders slumping and a horrified look on her face. "This means I'm training with you again today…"
"An' what's wrong with that?" Jin put his hands on his hips, acting offended although the quirk of his lips showed the humor he saw in all of this. "I'm a mighty fine training partner."
"No, you're a pain," Amai sighed and started up the steps, not waiting for him. "You laugh at me when I fall over and trip, and I'm pretty sure the last time I got a nose bleed we had to take a break because you nearly choked you were laughing so hard. It's always a joke, with you."
Jin, who had started floating next to her, dropped his feet back to earth at Amai's glance. "I'm jus' tryin' to make it fun. I promise I'll try not to be laughin' so hard, this time."
"See, you say that, but I'm not certain I believe it. In fact, I'm 90% sure I don't believe you."
Her way was blocked as Jin hopped up a few steps to stand in front of her, a determined look on his face. "I said I won' and I won'."
Amai couldn't find words. She stared at him, first in surprise, then to see if he truly was as serious as he appeared. Then in surprise again, because he certainly seemed serious.
"Hmm." Was all she could say, hiding her blush with another frown, "We'll see."
She sidled by him and not a moment later he was back, cheerily walking in step with her, chattering about the training they'd be doing. She was nearly smiling by the time they reached the top of the stairs. Then she remembered the training she'd be doing.
"You'd think climbing those stairs would be training enough," she grumbled, looking down at her aching feet.
"Well it's not." An equally agitated voice replied.
Amai often wondered what made Genkai so angry all the time. She didn't seem to lead a particularly difficult life, except that she had to deal with dipshits like Yusuke all the time. Obviously Amai knew very little of Genkai's past (nor of her participation in the Dark Tournament, etc), so Amai had first looked at the withered woman with an air of speculation and skepticism. Now that she was in training, however, Amai felt only begrudging respect and the phantom feeling of exhaustion when thinking of her.
Knowing better at this point, Amai did not argue. Instead, she frowned and put her hands on her hips, "What's the plan today, Shihan?"
A sharp look from Genkai (did she have any other looks?) made Amai regret asking. As the old woman turned and started walking, Amai sighed and followed after her. After a moment, Jin floated over to Amai. The brunette could feel irritation growing in her chest as Jin lazily floated along.
"Woulda been helpful if you floated me up all those stairs instead of waitin' to scare me," Amai grumbled, hands in her shorts' pockets. "Then maybe I'd have more energy for training."
"Naw, but you hate when I float you anywhere." Jin flapped his hand at her, knowing she was just arguing for the sake of it. "You just complain about how high we're flyin' and get mad a' me. Don't worry, someday you'll be able ta' run up an' down those stairs wi'out breakin' a sweat!" he finished by putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"But I wanna be good at it now," she muttered back at him. "And I don't complain that much."
"I'm not strolling along these grounds for fun, you know." Genkai nagged from up ahead.
Amai sighed deeply and, raising her eyebrows at Jin, she jogged to catch up to Genkai. The old woman had led them to a large open space behind the house. In the distance, albeit not too far away, Amai spied a zen garden she had never noticed before.
"Sit." Genkai commanded.
Without even looking around for a chair, Amai quickly dropped to the ground in a criss-cross position. Amai knew, at this point, what was expected of her; immediate meditation. Shaking off her backpack, Amai settled into the comfortable position, her hands relaxing on her knees. She focused on her core, finding her spirit energy pooled in her chest and following the threads of it as it flowed through her veins. She twitched when she felt, more than heard, Jin sink down beside her. They weren't touching, but she could sense his demon energy. Light blue, rather like the sky on a sunny day, energy surrounded him as she sought out his energy with hers. Smiling to herself because this sort of thing had been much more difficult a month ago, she dived into her own energy and focused.
A while later, Genkai decided they'd meditated enough. Amai's eyes fluttered open, almost begrudgingly. If nothing else, meditating had taught her to become one with herself, and to better appreciate who she was. She loved spending that time with her thoughts, with no one to interrupt them.
Genkai grunted. "You didn't fall asleep this time."
High praise, from Genkai. Amai grinned and jumped to her feet, energetic now that she'd rested. A quick glimpse at the sun showed that more than an hour had passed, though it felt like no time at all.
Genkai's eyes roved to the demon, still sitting on the grass. Amai turned to look as well and saw that he was sleeping. Amai rolled her eyes, grinning. She tip-toed over to him, extending her hand to poke his forehead and knock him over. She let out a squeak in shock as Jin grabbed her hand, faster than she could see. He pulled her a little closer, smiling just a little bit.
"Never poke a sleeping demon," he advised, then frowned playfully. "Didn't I already tell you that?"
To say that Amai's face was red would be a severe understatement. Simply 'red' could never do justice to the highly embarrassed, slightly shamed look on Amai's face, highlighted by her wide eyes and slightly agape mouth.
Jin released her wrist, back to grinning, and hopped up to his feet as Amai tried to catch her balance. Amai didn't speak, not trusting her voice as she looked anywhere except at Jin or Genkai. All her peace and serenity from meditating was gone, replaced with hectic anxiety and embarrassment. She could almost feel Genkai rolling her eyes as she ahem'd and waited for Amai to look back up at her. From beneath her lashes, Amai did and prepared herself for some terrible training.
"You still haven't mastered your control for your shield. Your reflexes aren't great either." Genkai paused and Amai shrugged, a sheepish expression on her face. Genkai grunted. "So Jin is going to throw air at you. And if you don't get any better he's going to throw rocks at you."
Startled, Amai looked up. "Huh? Rocks!" Damn karma.
Jin started laughing but stopped quickly, instead just grinning widely. Amai began grumbling about the training when Genkai snarled at her to get ready. Amai jumped and turned quickly to Jin, a rather piteous look on her face.
"It's good trainin'," Jin said, floating a foot off the ground, his legs crossed like a pretzel. "An' if you do good enough, I won' have ta throw rocks at ya!"
"I will come at you like the crazy mother trucker I am if you even think about throwing rocks at me," Amai threatened, pointing at him angrily.
Genkai sighed. Amai heard the rustling of grass as Genkai moved away to observe and occasionally harshly critique Amai's skills. Jin took this as 'start training'; Amai took this as 'prepare to start training'. The ball of air hit her stomach and knocked her over before she could even think about it.
Coughing, she launched herself back up angrily but could not immediately see the aggravating ginger-demon.
She was about to grumble angrily to herself when she heard a slight whish of air coming towards her- she jumped to the side. Amai saw the air glide past her, and looked in the direction it had come from. She could almost feel Genkai's disapproval at not using her powers.
"Well, fine." Amai grumbled, closing her eyes to tune into her surroundings.
The next rush of air was coming from her right, and she put up her right hand, palm out towards the offending air. With the motion came an invisible shield that blocked the air. Amai's face flickered into a slight smile as she waited for the next one. It went on like this for a while until Jin stepped things up a bit, sending air at her from different directions, at the same time.
The first time this happened, Amai missed the one aimed at her head, which completely broke her concentration. She sneezed and grumbled, rubbing her head. If she continued to be hit in the head, by air-balls or soccer balls, she wouldn't have any brain cells left. She peered over at Genkai, who seemed to be dozing. Amai sighed as she sensed another attack and attempted to block it. This time, she missed the one aimed at her legs. She fell flat on her bottom with a shout of surprise. A short laugh warned her of Jin's position and she quickly stood up, ignoring her aching tail bone.
Jin threw three this time, but Amai was ready. Her hands outstretched in front of her, palms facing out, she dug in her heels and brought up her full shield, covering the entirety of her body. The only weak spot she had was where her feet were, though with more training she supposed she could completely enclose herself. The air bounced harmlessly off her invisible shield, and she found herself smiling just a little bit. Her head was pounding, but not painfully. She breathed slowly in and out of her mouth as she felt a couple more of the air balls ricochet off her force field.
She stopped suddenly as she felt her nose tingle. Shields dropped, Amai's hands flew to her face as one last ball of air came flying at her. She felt it harmlessly breeze through the flyaway strands of hair around her face as Jin touched down in front of her.
Hands covering her nose, Amai grumbled, "Go away Jin! If you laugh at me I'll… I'll –"
Jin rolled his eyes, but gently placed his hands on her wrists, pulling them away from her nose. His hands were a little cold, and rough as always, but Amai somehow didn't mind it. A huge pout on her face, she allowed Jin to pull her hands from her face. The bloody nose was a little worse than last time as it continued to dribble. She was about to sniff when she remembered what a bad idea that was.
"Don't you dare make fun of me." Amai threatened, her voice whispery with sheer embarrassment.
Jin didn't say anything, which was surprising enough. He just looked at her nose before motioning with his hand. Amai quirked an eyebrow and saw that this gesture was to bring her backpack over.
"You brought tissues, am I righ'?" Jin caught the backpack and unzipped it.
She nodded at the same time he found the tissues. Amai was almost stunned that he was being this helpful. She nearly forgot that her nose was still dripping blood. Grabbing a handful of them, Jin clamped onto Amai's nose, squeezing it a little.
"Ew, Jin, I can do it, ok?" Amai's face was, once again, bright pink as she reached up to try and take the tissues.
"It's just blood, Amai," he grinned at her.
"Yeah, blood from my nose. It's like… grosser." Amai was pouting again, mostly because her words sounded more like "Yeah, bod fom ma dose. It like, gosser".
Jin made a dismissing motion with his free hand as Genkai's footsteps neared. Amai hadn't even noticed that the old woman was making her way over to them.
"What's the matter now?" Genkai's sharp words revealed her agitation that the training had stopped, and her lack of concert for Amai's nose.
"Bah dose-" Amai started, but Jin was obviously trying not to laugh while she spoke. Frustrated, Amai growled, severely unthreateningly, "Okay, by don' you dell her."
"What's to tell?" Jin smiled, directing his next comments to Genkai. "Her nose is bleedin', an' it's prolly 'cause her human body can' quite catch up to wha' her reiki is doin'."
Genkai looked at Amai who seemed rather pitiful at the moment. Amai and Genkai were both frowning at the assessment. Genkai harrumphed and Amai, who had gone back to fidgeting and trying to retrieve the tissues, quirked an eyebrow.
"More training." Genkai turned to go back to her place on the porch.
"Whaaaa?" Amai complained.
Jin was chuckling again, "Looks like you'll be runnin' up n' down them stairs o'er and o'er again,"
"Is that what she meant?" Amai squawked, horrified.
Removing the tissues from her nose and inspecting it quickly, Jin grinned at her. "Don' worry. I'll run 'em with ya."